…as government avails the women development fund
Tinaani Nyabereka
Gweru-Women in the Midlands province have been urged to embrace life changing and sustaining projects under the Young Women for Economic Development drive.
Speaking at the Midlands Prisons Women Capacitation Initiative official launch at Hwahwa Prison recently, Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises, Jennifer Mhlanga said it was important for women to embrace business opportunities as government had moved in to support them with both women and community development grants.
She added that as a ministry, they had drafted a list of initiatives to help boost business ideas which women could undertake.
“I am glad we came here to witness some of the great projects which women are doing. We have seen various products from this official launch that include detergents making, horticulture produces, fashion and designing among others. However, we still call upon women on board as we can do more.
“I want us to be practical and look how best we can enhance our skills towards entrepreneurship. From today’s launch and exhibition, let us go with ideas and further refine them for bigger projects. We have a list of initiatives as a ministry on which us as micro-players in business can adopt and improve our livelihoods.
“As young women for Economic Development, let us take the program to our various centers and provinces so that we go and seed our ideas with the women development fund. Through government, we have managed to get the support to elevate us as women because we are lagging behind in terms of empowerment,” she added.
Mhlanga further encouraged women to enrol with the newly established vocational institution in Masvingo for training.
“As the southern region, we have good news for you. We have established the Rodgers Howman institution which is set to equip women with skills for developmental projects. We also have the Jamaica Inn which caters for the northern region. From there we will partner with tertiary institutions for further refined entrepreneurship packages.
“We also now have the community development fund in place which we are going to seed here at Hwahwa. If you feel as a community you can do a bigger impactful project, approach us with your proposal. If they pass you will be awarded the funding. These funds are being facilitated through Woman and Empowerment banks. These funds are available for you to use.” she added.
Mhlanga however challenged women to make use of the devolution fund saying through the minister of State’s office and local authorities’ community changing projects would be considered under the devolution funds.
Young Women for Economic Development (YWED) national chairperson, Tatenda Mavetera expressed gratitude to the First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, Patron of Prisons, for imparting life changing initiatives to women.
“We want to thank Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa for giving us the opportunity to use our hands as young women and we are following her footsteps. Let me repeat, as a movement we are not here for politics but bread and butter issues.
“Do not think being married is a ticket to better life or living, rather using your hands is the only way to sustain your families and development of the country. I will give you an example the fingers of a hand ,they are not equal, so just like fingers let us discover our strength and focus more on our abilities because we might be different and have different strengths to cascade development , as young women we stand for development,” she said.
Meanwhile Young Women for Economic Development, provincial chairperson, Farirai Nhari urged young women to work towards attaining bigger investment opportunities by working together.
The launch was held under the theme, “Inclusion of women in various sectors of the economy as we attain vision 2030”
The young Women for Economic Development initiative is a women empowerment programme established by the First lady as efforts to capacitate the livelihoods of women at household and community levels.
As an initiative it seeks to complement government efforts towards attaining vision 2030 by uplifting the welfare of women through various developmental community projects.
